Russian arms for Pakistan

Whose war has Pakistan been fighting since 9/11, 2001? For whose sake Pakistan as a front line ally sacrificed more than 62,000 people, including army jawans and officers, and lost over one trillion dollars, Rs1.06 billion alone in the last year? Obviously it is none else but America. Then what has gone wrong on earth that the Americans since then have not given Pakistan a single useful weapon to be able to effectively use it against the terrorists? It only gave the so-called Coalition Support Fund (CSF) – a sort of rent – and not only put an embargo on weapons’ sale but also stopped the weapon-manufacturing countries from selling arms to Pakistan.

The gears that the terrorists used were far more sophisticated than those of the uniformed personnel of Pakistan army. Yet, there had been stepped up pressure from Washington to “do more” and go and operate in North Waziristan or elsewhere. Even now when Americans have swapped Taliban prisoners with their prisoner, the US is opposed to Nawaz Sharif’s idea of talking to Taliban. This apparent American war has now been made Pakistan’s war, which the country has a firm resolve to fight to the finish at all costs.

For that Gen Raheel Sharif needs weapons, arms and ammunition. Pakistan has bought a squadron of F-16s from Qatar and the lifting of embargo on arms sale and deliveries by Russia to Pakistan is a welcome development. Pakistan is negotiating the sale of a number of Mi-35 attack helicopters. Gen Raheel is in China and obviously he would discuss mutual cooperation in order to fight out terrorism once and for all.

Ironically, at a time when Pakistan was fighting the American war, the US was supplying piles of weapons to India. It rather inked civil nuclear tech deal with New Delhi. In the cold war revival like scenario, Russia has decided to lift the embargo on Pakistan which needs sufficient number of war machinery to cope with the menace of terrorism. So no need for the Americans to get annoyed or the Indians to worry about, we are on a course to clear our own mess and we will, come what may.

MARYA MUFTY

Lahore